you can start another challenge project Michael and you’ll end up with three different ones… more chances to win … 
you have a plenty time mate to polish it and try different camera angles and lighting… also you can add endless amount of details to your scene that definitely can only improve your work and make it look more solid…
cheers… 
hmm well the bottom one looks more 2020-human-like design and the top one looks more like 3000 human-like design. But both are great! Now the wormhole in the back looks a bit too bright… and takes the attention from the planet… which is a bit bad cuz you want to focus on the planet(i think so)… Keep it up! Update soon!!
Amazing work man. there are just a few things that sorta made me post a reply, if the planet is dieing as it is, wouldn’t there be cracks all over the planet? for a really good reference final fanatasy or art of greg martin do well. They should be visiable enough from your angle, but you can hardly see any in the pics u posted. The planet is lacking atmosphere, it seems too flat. Also the planet is not affected by it’s environement, it has a bright blue light coming from it’s right but it’s not affecting it;and personally i think the inside of the planet is a bit too dim. Sorry if it seems am being a real “critic” here but i just think that you’re idea is really awsome, and with a few tweaks it could be unbelivable. Keep the great work.
Thanks for the suggestions guys. 
I’m going to use the 2nd ship design as I think it fits more with my over all idea for the image.
Most of your suggestions are going to be taken care of in post.
“The planet is lacking atmosphere, it seems too flat.” - This is because the planet has no atmosphere. It’s being sucked away. But I will add some glow to the planet in post.
“…it has a bright blue light coming from it’s right but it’s not affecting it” - If you are refering to the black hole, it’s not to it’s right, it’s behind. So the backside of everything is lit blue. If I removed the sun to the left the whole foreground would be dark.
Maybe there is something wrong with my image if people are percieving the black hole to just be to the right of the planet.
Thanks for the input everyone. I really do need it.
:applause:
Well, this is the final rendering. But not done yet. Still have to do a little post work on it.
Wow! that is what I call a big boom:twisted: Very nice image. But I’m not convinced to thos ship. If have soem time, I advice to do some tries… I would mix the previous ship with this one. Change the new fron of the ship for the smooth front(maybe just caut a little of the old ship and use it as a front part), and in the back part add only a little bit more smoothiness… but if you don’t have time and willingness than thos would also work:thumbsup:
nice job!
hey hey hey, long tym no c… seems like ur gettin up image up already… very nice going buddy…okay heres my crit: the background stars looks to intence. the sunlight is not string enough to cast a nicely contrasted light and crisp shadow… i suggest intesify the key light… dude u need a whole lot more particles in ur scene… and through up some more ships going in all direction or in a cluster… that would give the image more eliment… abt the blackhole Jet… u might want to give it a more hardcore look… i suggest ading a glow and straching the jet in both direction… well thats abt it for now…
keep up the good works, ur progress is great and ur doing reallly great… now all is needed some minor adjustments and u got ur GRAND SPACE OPERA!! :applause: :bounce:
The rendering is very,very good. Although, I don’t see that the explosion of the ship is that powerful… maybe you’ll work on it in post-production. All in all, cool!!!
The composition looks pretty good!
And you have all the time in the world for minor adjustments and small modelling! This is great man! Hope the next month you’ll do all those little paintovers and adjustments to bring more out of it! :bounce::bounce:
very nice explosion is great well done love the galaxy:bounce:
just my opinion but i think the planet needs a little more <dust> in the explosion. just thinking.
very good man cant wait to see final with refinements:thumbsup:
My first ever post shall be brief… but I think the planet could use a few volcanoes spewing magma into the atmosphere. Just a small touch but I think it could improve an already great render!
Thanks everyone for all the great sugestions and pointers. Looks like I’ll be working on it a bit more. :wip:
Ok, here’s a new Final render. Changed the composition a bit, added some explostions. Done with photo texture maps. If I would have had Pyrocluster I would have used that, but seeing as how I don’t, photo textures will have to do. But I think it does add to the image.
And as before I still need to do some post work on it.
Hello miketche! 
I like your take on this one! I believe, regarding that you still have some month or so for adjustments, you can really push this staff further with some more “love”. I’d say that you can do that without having the clock chasing you like the most of us here…
I have some suggestions on some things on your composition…
[ul]
[li]Adding some more depth on the planet landscape would be a nice touch. Some cracks of magma and landscape variation mountains, greenfields, ocean. Not modeling them just playing around with some textures. [/li][li]Also a nice touch would be to simulate some atmosphere with a grand explosition effect in and around it, that needs some parts of texturing to create the general atmosphere or bended to the sships atmosphere main volume but then it’s all in texturing. [/li][li]Some color variation on the ships would look nice I think. Especially self illuminating with some color the front holes shaped by the Y form would look cool [/li][/ul]
Hope I didn’t mess you up…It’s just some ideas here…Don’t know how you vision the composition so can’t tell if I had some points here…:shrug:
Waiting for some of your post work!
:wavey:
Hi! I dont followed your thread for a while, sorry... too much work. But Im back and here is the comments & crits.
All is fantastic :bounce: exept the explosion on the top of the planet… I don`t like it visually and I think there shoud be here some disturbed atmosphere and nothing else. Why an explosion, gaz from the planet? :curious:
Anyway keep up the grand art
Hi Miketche… that’s :applause: + :bounce: I really love it, congrats…
I don’t know you you preview to work a lot in post-work, just some fog (dust particles or something like this) who can keep a much deep sensation between your 2 entinty can increase a perspectiv efx eventually. Or just accentuate some contrast.
Anyway what a great result !!! :bowdown:
jdd
Thats really turning out very well Michael…there’s alot to see and like,and I think with the extra time the skies the limit here for your creation…My favorite part is the vessel whisking awy with that vapor trail trailing behind,cool looking…Keep this hard work up,nicely done…
Mike,
The image looks great, I didn’t think this was going to be easy to do (planet exploding) but you did a very good job on this. Maybe some fine dust particles close to the planet being part of the explosion. It looks a little to clean, maybe this is what you were going to do in post.
Great job on this.
Mike
My GSO entry
http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=180886